A Turn Up From the Books. Unanticipated discoveries from Early Printed Book Cataloguing.

Congratulations to Sharon Corrigan from Dublin City University Library, whose blog post was highly commended in the CONUL Training and Development Library Assistant Blog Awards 2025.

There tends to be a smattering of surprises each week working in special collections, unexpected connections between the past and present that pop up and elicit a quiet ooh from me along my journey as a library assistant currently working with early printed books (EPBs) at DCU. In these collections each book has been on its own individual saga and it is the uniqueness of both items, (a handwritten dedication inside), and manifestation (the printer’s chosen dedicatee for that edition) that I am endeavouring to capture when cataloguing, together with the usual publication information and descriptions that will lead researchers to find the records in the first place.

Unanticipated considerations have included how long one can spend finding the apt term for a quirky binding or stamp, and how differently cities in Latin sound compared to their modern Anglicised names. Luckily RBMS have an invaluable table of Latin place names providing that all important consistency.

Local history hidden amid foreign texts.
Latin is not my first language, I have picked up a little on the job. I do, however, feel confident in saying that 800+ page tomes on ecclesiastical theory are not ‘light reading’. Inevitably even the most committed cleric needed study breaks. So, secreted in the pages of some EPBs are bookmarks, beautifully preserved, forgotten pages, that give a glimpse of 19th century Dublin. A Dublin, where you might have correspondence with shopkeepers on personalised stationery. These include a linen order from Webb’s wholesalers, Upper Bridge-Street, on the back of which are listed the necessities of the day, a grocery list, including mustard and beer. Hopefully used after ‘the messages’ had been fetched. A receipt for two baskets showcases the wares of the weavers of the Richmond Institution for Instruction of the Blind, on O’Connell Street. Finally a letter of reply to a query about a flute was found bearing a letterhead from M. Gunn & Sons at 61 Grafton Street; now home to the Disney store.

A receipt from James Webb, wholesale & retail linen draper and importer of English flannels, 15 and 16, Upper-Bridge Street, (Joining Corn-Market) dated 21st April 1826.

The reverse of the same receipt on which is a hand written list of groceries signed by a John Taylor.

An order slip for two baskets from the Richmond Institution for Instruction of Industrious Blind, located at 41, Upper Sackville Street,Dublin [Now O’Connell St] dated July 1855.

The letter head from a response to an enquiry for the costing of the repair of a flute showing the letterhead of M. Gunn & Sons, Music & Musical Instrument Warehouse. 61 Grafton Street, Dublin, dated January 2nd [18]71.

Folios don’t fool around, or do they?
What lies within the covers of an EPB? Even the wisest cannot know; at least from the binding alone. Occasionally it has been a desiccated spider leering up at me. When noting books’ heights in the physical description (300) field I also add their format, useful when differentiating books from other printings during the hand press period. Upon checking a suspected folio one day I looked towards the light through a page and could see what Gaskin (1995, p.82) describes as the “chain lines in the paper running up and down the leaves (vertically)... and that the watermark was in the middle of one of the leaves”. These are left imprinted in paper from when it was dried on molds during its making. This particular watermark was very clearly a jester wearing his hat. Having grown up with British art and craft TV shows, an old term they - and therefore I - often used, sprang immediately to mind… that’s a foolscap!

The ‘foolscap sheet’ is still sometimes used in the art and law fields, being the Imperial size of paper in the UK, or folio in Europe, and was once the term for a standard sheet of paper, though it has been replaced mostly by the slightly shorter A4 size now (Pearce-Moses, 2005, p.174). There is a quick guide to identifying formats available from the STCV if you’re interested in checking what format a book in your collection is using the watermark.

Two leaves showing the white outline of the foolscap watermark, a jester in his hat with beads. Both taken from the book whose title page appears on the left Historical collections : of private passages of state, of weighty matters in law, of remarkable proceedings in five parliaments. Beginning the sixteenth year of King James, anno 1618. And ending the fifth year of the King Charls, anno 1629. Published 1659.

The Human Touch in the Sphere of Don’t Touch
EPBs are generally stored in climate controlled, dark places, to preserve them until they are requested so that they can appear heroically on a glowing cushion, or so I tell them as I tuck them away to wait. EPBs can seem remote and intangible. Handling them, performing light cleaning, and basic preservation, enclosing detached material in acid free paper and using a human touch to flatten, straighten, and secure what isn’t too brittle. Gloves are used only rarely, and for specific tasks, as the LOC (2025) recommends clean dry hands except for “photographs and film, metals, ivory”. The dexterity of my fingertips, so far, are giving me an edge over AI. The surprising durability of handmade paper composed from cotton or linen fibres leaves me constantly astonished, even inside bindings that seem battered and bruised there often sits a perfectly sewn text block of bright white paper waiting to impart the words it’s held stable for nearly 500 years.

While there have been many more unexpected surprises during the cataloguing of EPBs at DCU they may have to wait to be shared a little longer in their fuller glory.

Bibliography
Boydell, B. (2021). Gunn, M. (& Sons). Dublin Music Trade. https://dublinmusictrade.ie/node/186

Gaskell, P. (1995). A new introduction to bibliography. St. Paul's Bibliographies, Winchester
Library of Congress. (2025). Frequently Asked Questions: Preservation. Ask a Librarian. https://ask.loc.gov/preservation/faq/337286

Maxwell, R.L. (1997). RBMS/BSC Latin Place Names File. Rare Books and Manuscripts Section Association of College and Research Libraries A Division of the American Library Association. https://rbms.info/lpn/

Rushworth, J. (1629). Historical collections : of private passages of state, of weighty matters in law, of remarkable proceedings in five parliaments. Beginning the sixteenth year of King James, anno 1618. And ending the fifth year of the King Charls. Thomason, G.

National Built Heritage Service. (2013). MRCB, 10-13 Cornmarket, Bridge Street Upper, Dublin 8, DUBLIN. https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/50080556/mrcb-10-13-cornmarket-bridge-street- upper-dublin-8-dublin

Pearce-Moses, R. (2005). A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology . The Society of American Archivists. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a1c710fbce17620f861bf47/t/5a35fffe41920241eb892a75/15134883 87901/SAA-Glossary-2005

Vlaamse Erfgoed Bibliotheken. (n.d.). List of Bibliographical Formats. STCV Bibliography of the Hand Press Book. https://manual.stcv.be/p/List_of_Bibliographical_Formats

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A Story for the Ages: A Tale of Engagement and Impact

 Congratulations to Arran Bradstock from Maynooth University Library, whose blog post was highly commended in the CONUL Training and Development Library Assistant Blog Awards 2025.

 

A Story for the Ages: A Tale of Engagement and Impact

Introduction: My Time in the Facilities s Events Team
As the Library Assistant in Maynooth University (MU) Library’s ‘Facilities C Events’ team, I’ve had the opportunity to work on a wide range of interesting events. From art exhibitions and book launches to coffee mornings and library tours, these events vary in size and audience and have given me some interesting insights into how a university library can connect with the public in meaningful ways. The importance of this can’t be overstated, as indicated by the MU Strategic Plan 2023-2028 where engaging with communities is among the key aspects of its Five-Year Focus.

The Maynooth Through the Ages history lecture series stands as a remarkable success in community engagement. From February to April in 2025, we hosted weekly talks and tours in and around the library, all free to the public and covering a wide span of topics from a host of excellent speakers. In this blog, I’ll give an overview of the series and highlight how I contributed to the events.

 

The History Lecture Series: A Growing Success 

Maynooth Through the Ages first ran in 2023, a cross- departmental series co-organised by the Library, the MU History Department, and St Patrick’s College, Maynooth. It was the brainchild of Prof Terence Dooley, Head of MU History Department, and Elaine Bean, Senior Library Assistant, with Dr Ciarán Reilly, Assistant Professor in the History Department joining in 2024. Due to popular demand, it returned for a third year in 2025.

 
While much of the series’ success stems from the excellent quality of talks and tours, (each of which could warrant its own write-up), it was also an organisational success. Every event in the series ran smoothly and we regularly had a full house of 130 attendees, with many familiar faces returning week after week, year after year.

This success was recognised at the 2025 MU President’s Awards ceremony, when the Maynooth Through the Ages Team of Elaine Bean and Dr Ciarán Riley received the Vice President’s Award in the Public Engagement Awards category.

 
Preparation, Promotion, Coordination: My Role in Organising the Events
Even a small event involves a lot of organising and management. With additional factors like public access, ticketed entry due to high demand, having multiple occurrences to make a series of connected events, etc., the level of planning involved increases significantly.

Working closely with Elaine, my focus covered the following areas:
•    Preparation:
-    Assisting with updating the library website with details of each event,
-    Dealing with cancellations and managing the waitlist on Eventbrite,
-    Monitoring a shared email inbox and responding to queries about the event.
•    Promotion:
-    Sharing    posts    on    the    library’s    social    media    accounts,
-    Live social media posting during the events,
-    Liaising with the videographer and uploading videos of the events to the library’s YouTube channel.
•    Coordination:
-    Working with the team to set up the room on the day of each event,
-    Liaising with the speakers before each talk and getting quotes for social media,
-    Greeting attendees before each talk and meeting groups of tour-goers at the designated meeting points.

What I’ve learned is that, whether an event is large or small every aspect needs to be considered and given the attention and professional approach it needs.

 
Reflection: The Importance s Power of Community Engagement (or: A Lesson for University Libraries?)

Our skills as event organisers in the library, coupled with the expertise of the History Department, made for a winning formula of interdepartmental strengths. So, is this just an isolated success story (which would still be worth writing about!), or is there something other libraries can take
away? To me, it highlights the unique role university libraries can play in creating meaningful, inclusive experiences for the wider public through open-access events.

Events like Maynooth Through the Ages can bring in new people from different walks of life, kickstart conversations and collaborations between disciplines, and deepen the connection between the library and the local area. We were
delighted to hear that several attendees have since registered for courses in the History Department, a testament to both the success of this event series and the power of community engagement.

This experience reaffirms the vital role libraries play as bridges between academia and the wider community, fostering curiosity, learning, and lasting connections.

 
Relevant Links (listed alphabetically):

•    Dr Ciarán Riley - University Webpage: https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/people/ciar-n-reilly

•    Elaine Bean - University Webpage:
https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/people/elaine-bean

•    Maynooth Through the Ages - Webpage:
https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/news-events/maynooth-through-ages-0

•    MU President’s Awards 2025 - Webpage:
https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/news-events/mu-president-s-awards- recognise-and-celebrate-staff

•    MU Strategic Plan 2023-2028 – Engagement and Partnerships Webpage: https://strategy.maynoothuniversity.ie/our-five-year-focus/#engagement-and-  partnerships

•    Prof Terence Dooley - University Webpage: https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/people/terence-dooley

•    Videos of Previous Years’ Talks – YouTube Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3tEZGQqCJ0-wmlmJRCWMJbzmcl6Vizhh
 

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What a TikTok ‘Thirst Trap’ Taught Me About Library Outreach in the Age of Disinformation

Congratulations to Hayley Brabazon from Dublin City University Library, whose blog post was highly commended in the CONUL Training and Development Library Assistant Blog Awards 2025.

It started with a thirst trap. Specifically, Jack Chambers, then newly appointed Minister for Finance, shooting hoops and shaking hands on TikTok to the tune of ‘I’m looking for a man in finance… trust fund… 6’5... blue eyes…’. It was supposed to be a fresh-faced, youth-focused announcement. Instead, it felt like the pilot episode of Crisis of Identity: Ministerial Edition - a man toggling between LinkedIn gravitas and TikTok frenzy.‘This is for bored middle-aged housewives,’ one student muttered. Another said he looked ‘sound enough - like someone your ma might vote for.’ And that’s where the conversation took off.

This wasn’t just a TikTok. It was a case study in media messaging; platform-native, visually slick, and strategically weird (Green, et al., 2022). Chambers wasn’t speaking to youth voters, so much as at them, via a medium and algorithm designed to bypass critical thinking and go straight for the vibes (Felaco, 2025). And it worked - kind of. They remembered it. They mocked it. They mocked me for thinking this is the kind of thing they’d find funny. But then they started asking: Why this format? Why this tone? Why the basketball? Why the bad attempt at a thirst trap?

Welcome to History in Your Hands, a critical literacy outreach programme, with class one disguised as a meme class. Designed to support Leaving Cert History students working on their Research Study Reports (RSRs), the programme blends archival propaganda with TikToks, internet culture, and just enough strategic cringe to get the room talking. Our aim? To make students not just better researchers, but sharper readers of the world around them.

Image 1: St Vincent's students taking a closer look at 20th Century Propaganda (History in Your Hands, 2024).

We didn’t just ask them to read a pamphlet. We asked them to read the room… and the algorithm. Because here’s the thing: students don’t need help using the internet. They need help reading it. The old-school checklist model of information literacy (spot the typo, check the domain name) doesn’t cut it any more. The most dangerous misinformation isn’t obviously fake; it’s emotionally slick, visually credible, and shared by that one cousin who ‘doesn’t trust the mainstream media’ (World Economic Forum, 2025).

Academic libraries can’t afford to sit that one out. In an age of deepfakes, microtargeted disinformation, and algorithmic radicalisation, outreach is not an optional extra. It’s the front line. If we’re serious about equipping students to navigate complex information environments, we have to meet them where they scroll and teach them how to pause (World Economic Forum, 2025). That’s what History in Your Hands tries to do. We paired 1922 propaganda posters with TikTok parodies. We analysed slogans, colour palettes, camera angles. We asked: Who is this for? What emotion is it trying to trigger? What’s left out? Then, the students made their own. Some were genuinely funny. All were deeply clever. And what they revealed was this: with the right formatting, any topic can be manipulated just enough to shift a narrative.

Image 2: Reimagining the 1916 leaders through the lens of internet culture (History in Your Hands, 2024).

And it worked. In two of the participating schools, 100% of students said they’d now think more critically about who creates digital content and why. In the third, over 84% said the same. That’s not just recall. That’s transformation. Throughout the programme, students also learned how to identify credible sources, navigate archives, and write up their research. But underneath all that structure was a deeper challenge: to look at information not just as content, but as persuasion. To question the aesthetics of credibility. And to realise that media literacy is as much about affect and intention as it is about citation style.

CONUL’s Shaping Tomorrow strategy talks about Connections & Community and One Voice. But it’s not just about infrastructure, it’s about interruption. Academic libraries have the ethical mandate to intervene in how students engage with information. We’re just not there to tell them what to think. But we can help them see how they’re being asked to think - and by whom. So yes, it started with a TikTok thirst trap. But it ended with students dissecting the emotional economy of propaganda, the mechanics of manipulation, and the weird political semiotics of TDs in suits holding basketballs. In the age of disinformation, outreach needs to meet students where they’re at. And that’s how academic libraries help shape tomorrow: one slightly awkward scroll at a time.

Bibliography:

CONUL (2025). Shaping Tomorrow: A strategy for Ireland's research libraries. Available at: https://conul.ie/conul-strategy-2025-2029/ (Accessed: 29/07/2025).

DCU Library, 2025. History In Your Hands project guide 2024 - 2025. Available at: https://dcu.libguides.com/Historyinyourhands (Accessed: 29/07/2025).

Fianna Fáil, (2024). Introducing the new man in finance, Jack Chambers, [Tik Tok] 27/06/2024. Available at: https://www.tiktok.com/@fiannafail/video/7385152758585838880?lang=en (Accessed: 29/07/2025).

Green D, Polk XL, Arnold J, Chester C, Matthews J, 2022. ‘The Rise Of TikTok: A Case Study Of The New Social Media Giant’, Management and Economics Research Journal, 8(1), pp 1-6.

Felaco, C., 2025. ‘Making Sense of Algorithm: Exploring TikTok Users’ Awareness of Content Recommendation and Moderation Algorithms’, International Journal of Communication, 19, pp 1081–1102.

World Econnomic Forum (2025) Rethinking Media Literacy: A New Ecosystem Model for Information Integrity. Available at:

https://www.weforum.org/publications/rethinking-media-literacy-a-new-ecosystem-model-for-i nformation-integrity/ (Accessed: 28/07/2025).

Images:

History in Your Hands, 2024. St Vincent’s students taking a closer look at 20th century propaganda. [image 1] Dublin: DCU Library. Unpublished outreach project material.

History in Your Hands, 2024. Reimagining the 1916 leaders through the lens of internet culture. [image 2] Dublin: DCU Library. Unpublished outreach project material.https://conul.ie/conul-strategy-2025-2029/

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Drawing From Nature: The Botanical Drawings of Eileen Barnes

Congratulations to Rebecca Cairns from Royal Irish Academy whose blog post has achieved third place in the CONUL Training and Development Library Assistant Blog Awards 2025.

Botanical illustrations have long been used to help us classify and identify plants. Depictions of flora in herbals and florilegia from the 16th century onwards allowed the two previously distinct and separate fields of art and science to be bridged. The art of natural history and botanical illustration would continue to evolve significantly between the 17th-18th centuries, allowing for further ease in understanding the structure and visual characteristics of plants. Many talented women artists actively contributed to this field, but they were seldom credited or acknowledged for their work. The Dublin-born Eileen Barnes (1876-1956)—who was a fastidious artist and talented model-maker—was one such woman.

Image 1: Drawing 77 (c): S dasyphyllum Linn (left); S. dasyphyllum var. Suendermanni Praeger (right) (RIA Praeger Collection, Box 2a/64/1-78 b)

After attending the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art (now the National College of Art and Design) between 1888-89, Barnes would go on to produce drawings of objects and construct museum models for the Natural History, Art, and Antiquities divisions in what is now known as the National Museum of Ireland (NMI). There is an early record of her donating a set of model platypus eggs to the museum in 1907 – suggesting that she was being commissioned to create work for the museum without being formally employed. Her name begins to appear intermittently on the museum’s employment registers from 1911 onwards, with her rank as a ‘specimen mounter’ first noted in 1918. Her earlier models include wax depictions of various mollusca, many of which are still on display in the Natural History Museum in Dublin.

Image 2: One of Eileen Barnes’ model slugs from the National Museum of Ireland’s collections (NMINH:2008.92.507); image courtesy of The National Museum of Ireland 

While Barnes was immensely skilled in producing models that bore a remarkable resemblance to live subjects, she also collaborated with other well-known scientists and naturalists and produced illustrations for their works. She worked with the lichenologist Matilda Knowles, biologist and ornithologist Annie Massy, and the naturalist Robert Praeger, MRIA.  

Praeger was especially reliant on Barnes for creating accurate drawings of Sedum (stonecrop) and Sempervivum (houseleeks) for his published works. Praeger found Sedum to be a particularly difficult plant to work with, as specimens do not dry well and often lose their leaves in the process of being prepared, making them ‘almost useless for comparison with the living plants, and identification is rendered correspondingly difficult’ (Praeger, 2). Barnes would thus draw the plants from Praeger’s live collected specimens, using a hand lens to complete her magnifications. Due to the difficulty of preserving these plants for the herbarium, and a lack of adequate existing herbarium material, these drawings by Barnes hold great value for researchers due to their likeness to the live plants.  

Barnes created approximately 300 drawings for Praeger’s publications on Sedum and Sempervivum. The RIA holds 186 of these original drawings, making up a small part of Praeger’s larger collection, which also includes journals, offprints, manuscripts, photographs, and other materials.

Image 3: Drawing 57:  S. Cockerellii Britton (left); S. Wrightii A. Gray (centre); S. lenophylloides Rose (right) (RIA Praeger Collection, Box 2a/64/1-78 b)
Image 4: Drawing 36 (left): S. verticillatum Linn (RIA Praeger Collection, Box 2a/64/1-78 b) 
Image 5: Drawing 38 (right): S. Ewersii Ledeb. var. homophyllum nov. (RIA Praeger Collection, Box 2a/64/1-78 b) 

Image 6: Pages from Praeger’s work on Sedum; showing the above drawing by Barnes in the final publication (RIA MR/31/R/30) 

The unsigned preparatory drawings remain in good condition and show only minor signs of deterioration. They have various cutouts adhered to them, showing curious additions of details, magnifications and different views of each plant. Rough notes are penciled onto some drawings which mention the species’ name and intended placement of the works for Praeger’s final book. These works provide insight into how illustrations were produced and edited in advance of preparing plates for printing. 

 

Outside of the seventeen-year collaboration with Praeger, Barnes did not receive much further recognition after his works on Sedum and Sempervivum had been published in 1932. There seems to only be a few mentions of her name until she was listed as a “botanic artist” in the 1976 edition of Capuchin Annual. 

Eileen Barnes’ drawings highlight an important collaboration and clearly demonstrate the exchange of knowledge between the field of visual arts and scientific inquiry. Moreover, the work of Barnes, which is quietly tucked away within Praeger’s larger collection, is a testament to the importance of amplifying the work of women artists and their archives.

References:  

 

Gallagher, Niav. “Barnes, Eileen Elizabeth Janet.” Dictionary of Irish Biography, April 2024, https://www.dib.ie/biography/barnes-eileen-elizabeth-janet-a10351. 

Lucy, John. “Eileen Barnes (1876-1956): the contribution of a gifted artist, scientific illustrator and model-maker to Irish natural history.” The Irish Naturalists' Journal, vol. 34, no. 2 (9 October 2015): pp. 113-124. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/44577796.pdf. 

 

Nelson, Charles E. “Robert Lloyd Praeger’s Crassulaceae: a commentary on possible type specimens in the National Botanic Gardens, Dublin, and on illustrations in the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin.” Bradleya, vol. 11, no. 11, Feb. 1993, pp. 91-106.  

 

Praeger, Robert. “An Account of the Genus Sedum as Found in Cultivation.” Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society, vol. 46, 1921, pp. 1-314. 

Scannell, Maura. “A work of special value.” In Stars, Shells and Bluebells: Women Scientists and pioneers. Dublin Women in Technology and Science, 1997. 

⸻. “Botanic Art and Some Irish Artists.” The Capuchin Annual 1976, pp. 100-111. 

 

* All images were produced by the Royal Irish Academy, with the exception of the image of the model slug, which was provided by the National Museum of Ireland.  

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How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Leganto

Congratulations to Alana Mahon O'Neill from DCU Library whose blog post has achieved second place in the CONUL Training and Development Library Assistant Blog Awards 2025. 

I started working with the reading list application Leganto on the eve of teaching week, August 2024, at Dublin City University Library. Joining the project, I expected a roadmap. Instead, I got an adventure.

Leganto logo via Exlibris

I was handed three oversized workflow pages and a clutch of working Google Docs. Here I go, Theseus¹ entering Daedalus’ labyrinth.² From the outset I encountered muddling back-to-back requests for obscure Victorian children’s stories, history pamphlets published by county council offices circa 2006, and TG4 documentaries verging upon lost media. Broken website links were parsed with liberal use of the Wayback Machine, and multiple-user licenses were purchased for ebooks serving cohorts of several hundred students. Negotiations with academic lecturers ensued. Through heart-to-hearts with Subject Librarians and parlaying with the cataloguing department, I quickly discovered how a reading list ties together the foundations of a university library.

Mosaic depicting a labyrinth with Theseus and Minotaur emblem, from "House of the Labyrinth", Pompeii, Italy. Photographed and edited by Volker Michael Stroka and published in 1991 Hauser in Pompeii Volume 4 Casa del Labirinto (VI 11 8-10) via Wikimedia Commons. 

Leganto is an ever-shifting maze of developments and interface changes that induces a feeling akin to Jorge Luis Borges’ The Library of Babel.³ While the workflow is mapped by a set shape, the off-shooting paths feel like shifting sands. Walls slip, and the exit evades. Now, to get out. How do we manage purchase requests? Digital content store items? Out-of-print books? Why does it feel like whenever I narrow down a workflow, I need to go back and rewrite it all over again?

Reading list submissions for 2024-2025, from July 2024 to November 2024, peaking in August and September. Data and picture credit: author. 

These were the sort of questions I asked myself while I completed 51 reading lists for Semester 1 last year. Was I on top of things? No time. Here comes January. Go.

A little backstory–Leganto is a reading list application, part of the Ex Libris package. We invite lecturers to submit their reading lists so that it streamlines the ordering process for materials on the library side, while ensuring reading content is available and accessible. As the library can feel like a daunting place for incoming students, we try to meet them halfway, so that they do not get lost in the abyss.

Reading list numbers in total per university faculty. Data and picture credit: author. 

Daedalus⁴ , master of the labyrinth and careful design, would feel at home among the reading lists of Science and Health, where structure and references reign.

Humanities follows close behind.

Once we identify key texts, we streamline access from Leganto straight to the library catalogue, all with one click. This benefits us as it ensures library longevity, boosts the quality of our collections, and encourages student engagement. For lecturers, they can view student analytics that inform engagement and popular texts. For students, it makes life a little easier.

Our largest issue stems from content outside the collection–we cannot always catch broken links, and copyright-restricted material is not permitted. The way we work around this is by encouraging the “report broken link” button for students and ordering requested material for our lecturers. Even so, a completed reading list is deceptively simple. For a student, this is both their entrance into the underworld of research and a gateway into soon-to-be endless possibilities. I just hope that they slay their Minotaur by proxy of completing their academic journey and make it through to the other side.

How do we progress with this?

With rolled-over lists, we see the volume of incoming lists slow down, but we gain a bit more insight into what quality, high-demand resources are needed. Saying that, while popularity is key, we always try to get the latest edition and fresh material that will support our students.

What have I learned?

While I do not possess Ariadne's thread,⁵ used by Theseus to escape the labyrinth, I had the guiding principle⁶—move forward, but reflect. When encountering an issue, refer back to what worked and start again. We all use this methodology in creative problem-solving.

Illustration from the cover of Higgins, C. Red Thread (2018) by Charlotte Higgins via The Irish Times

Have I come to love Leganto?

Contrary to popular belief, I don’t see human beings and library software forming connections anytime soon. Saying that, after one year with Leganto, we have become reluctant friends. Somewhat. The application is ever changing, and our workflow has been rejigged several times since inception. Our next step is for near-total lecturer participation–easier said than done. I am making some YouTube videos. Fingers crossed.

My role is not over. Like Sisyphus, I roll the boulder to the top–only to let it drop with each new reading list. There is no thread uncut. We follow a workflow, place requests and organise lists. Even with academic immersion, we plan to monitor input and manage orders for the latest materials. I am through the labyrinth, but the thread must be maintained. I have done my part. Last year, I completed 83 reading lists.

This month: 22, alone. September is around the corner, and one must imagine Sisyphus happy⁷. 

Come, take a thread. Let’s go.

Footnotes

¹ King of Athens, Theseus in his youth travelled to Crete and killed the Minotaur. He escaped from the Labyrinth in which it was kept with the help of a thread given him by King Minos’ daughter Ariadne (Kearns et al., 2014).

² Daedalus’ labyrinth was designed to trap the beast, the Minotaur. It is the original labyrinth of classical mythology (Ferber, 2007).

³ A short story by Borges detailing a labyrinth library of interlocking rooms containing all possible text in existence (Borges, 1941). A web version has also been created.

⁴ Daedalus, creator of the labyrinth, was a renowned craftsman (Cotterell, 1997).

⁵ Ariadne gave a thread to Theseus when entering the labyrinth (Leeming, 2005).

⁶ There is a logic used in computers and puzzle solving called “Ariadne’s thread” that is derived from the myth. In short, it involves tracing back steps and finding any and all solutions (Mepham, 2005).

⁷ This philosophy, derived from the myth of Sisyphus, suggests that in order for one to live, one must find meaning and fulfilment even when confronting obstacles (Camus, 1941).

References

Borges, J.L. (1941) The Library of Babel.

Camus, A. (1941). The Myth of Sisyphus.

Cotterell, A. (1997). Daedalus. In A Dictionary of World Mythology. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 31 July 2025, from https://www-oxfordreference-com.dcu.idm.oclc.org/view/10.1093/acref/97801921774 76.001.0001/acref-9780192177476-e-200

Ferber, M. (2007). Labyrinth. In Ferber, M. A dictionary of literary symbols (pp. 106-107). Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 29 July 2025 from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/dcu/reader.action?docID=326009&ppg=119&c=UERG

Kearns, Emily, and Karim W. Arafat. (2014). Theseus. In The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 29 July 2025 from https://www-oxfordreference-com.dcu.idm.oclc.org/view/10.1093/acref/97801987067 79.001.0001/acref-9780198706779-e-623

Leeming, D. (2005). Ariadne. In The Oxford Companion to World Mythology. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 29 July 2025, from https://www-oxfordreference-com.dcu.idm.oclc.org/view/10.1093/acref/97801951566 90.001.0001/acref-9780195156690-e-134.

Mepham, M. (2005). Solving Sodoku. Crosswords Ltd. [Guide]. Retrieved 31 July 2025, from https://www.sudoku.org.uk/PDF/Solving_Sudoku.pdf

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